Are you familiar with the African Proverb that asks, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is “One bite at a time.”
The same principle can be applied to reading. My daughter (6) has always been enthusiastic about reading but I am aware that this isn’t the case for every child. I’m not an expert but I think it is safe to say that every child is unique in his learning. Some children have legitimate learning disabilities. Other children are more easily distracted. They might become overwhelmed and frustrated by the enormity of the task. (I certainly feel this way when it comes to cleaning!)
A friend of mine had trouble getting her son to practice reading. She literally drew a picture of an elephant and hung it on the wall. Every time her son completed a reading assignment he was allowed to color a section of the elephant. Eventually all parts of the elephant were colored in. When broken up into bite-sized pieces reading became manageable. It was also a visual way for her son to measure his success.
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Nathan didn’t want anything to do with reading when he was young. The teacher thought he had a learning disability, but I was fairly sure he didn’t. I finally realized that I had to find something that interested him. I knew he loved baseball. I talked it over with the teacher, and she allowed him to read baseball cards for silent reading time. This may sound silly, but to a 7 year old boy it was what he needed. From that point it was sports books. He eventually learned the love of reading.
Hmm, this is very interesting. I was the complete opposite as child. My family had to pry books out of my hands. In fact my mother restricted my reading time to after 8 pm and I was only allowed to read 5 books a day. It’s wierd because my sister isn’t a reader.